RE: Carl Lewis - best 200m runners in history meet science.

Interesting calculations.

Could you also specify how old the guys were when they ran each of those times, or the age difference between their Junior and Senior times? I know Shawn Crawford ran that 19.79 a few weeks ago at the age of 31, but I'm not sure of the ages of the others besides "being in their 20's"

C/M Runner wrote:

I know Shawn Crawford ran that 19.79 a few weeks ago at the age of 31, but I'm not sure of the ages of the others besides "being in their 20's"

Shawn Crawford ran that 19.79 just under 5 YEARS ago.

This is interesting. It might also be cool to compare these numbers to those of known dopers, percentage-wise.

asfdasfasf wrote:

C/M Runner wrote:

I know Shawn Crawford ran that 19.79 a few weeks ago at the age of 31, but I'm not sure of the ages of the others besides "being in their 20's"

Shawn Crawford ran that 19.79 just under 5 YEARS ago.

I thought he PRed at US Nationals?

C/M Runner wrote:

I thought he PRed at US Nationals?

Uh, he ran a wind-aided (+3.3) 19.73 at USATF, if that's what you're talking about.

Gotcha, so the listing above were PRs within legal wind limits. Thanks for the info.

"This is interesting. It might also be cool to compare these numbers to those of known dopers, percentage-wise."

Yeah, real "cool."

link wrote:

*Carl Lewis 20.66 19.75 0.0457

Usain Bolt 19.93 19.30 0.0316

*Justin Gatlin 20.29 19.86 0.0211

Shawn Crawford 20.78 19.79 0.0476

Bernard Williams 21.73 20.01 0.0791

Walter Dix 20.18 19.69 0.0243

Michael Johnson 20.41 19.32 0.0534

Churandy Martina 20.71 20.11 0.0289

Wallace Spearmon 20.25 19.65 0.0296

Tyson Gay 20.88 19.58 0.0622

Column 1) Athlete's name

Column 2) Best time as junior (Under 19 years old)

Column 3) Senior PB

Column 4) The percentage improvement from Junior age to Senior age in the 200m

Just got an idea because of the Carl Lewis quote to see how some of the top 200m runners in history have improved as they grew up.

I don't think this could be classed as scientific now, but its interesting!

How about looking at the individual athletes' progession? For instance:

Usain Bolt:

Year Age Time

2001 14 21.73

2002 15 20.58

2003 16 20.13

2004 17 19.93

2005 18 19.99

2006 19 19.88

2007 20 19.75

2008 21 19.30

2009 22 19.59 (so far)

Tyson Gay:

2002 20 20.88

2003 DNC

2004 22 20.07

2005 23 19.93

2006 24 19.68

2007 25 19.63

2008 26 20.00

2009 27 19.58

Shawn Crawford:

1997 19 20.78

1998 20 20.44

1999 21 20.39

2000 22 20.09

2001 23 20.17

2002 24 19.85

2003 25 20.02

2004 26 19.79

2005 27 20.12

2006 DNC

2007 29 20.21

2008 30 19.85

2009 31 20.19

CL should shut up about supposed drug cheats...the rumour in "the industry" is that CL had at least one positive test (83 WC) that was covered up with a pile of US shoe company cash....